Internet browsing and other online activities have become increasingly important in users' lives as they obtain information, access entertainment, play games, listen to downloaded audio, etc. The individual personal computer users downloading of information accounts for 93.5% of Internet use.
Advertisers are keenly aware of the amount of time users spend on the Internet and are including their advertising materials alongside the information that is downloaded to user's computers, tablets, cell phones, game consoles, or other devices. Providing these advertising materials is an increasingly popular business model. Advertising revenue is an increasingly important revenue stream for content providers. For example, one online search engine provider estimated that 83% of its web revenue is earned by displaying advertising alongside content.
As advertisers are recognizing the value of providing advertising with downloaded content, they are also continuously striving to improve the effectiveness of such advertising. Effective advertising is generally providing by customizing the subject matter being advertised to the viewer. Increasing the effectiveness of the advertising can be valuable both to the advertiser and to the content provider that is providing the advertisement. For example, advertisers are known to pay a small amount based upon each display of the advertisement and to pay a significantly higher amount to content providers when users actually click on the displayed advertisements.
Accordingly, both advertisers and content providers have taken steps to match downloaded advertisements to the users that will be viewing those advertisements, increasing the likelihood that the user will click on the advertisement. Advertisers gather as much information as possible about users including, for example, the types of websites they typically visit, search terms entered by the user, types of applications installed on the user's computer system, etc. Advertisers use this information to target specific content alongside which their advertising materials are to be downloaded. For example, users viewing downloaded content related to the stock market will be presented with advertisements from brokerage companies.
However, user activity and content subject matter will not always provide the best indication of the type of advertising materials that are of interest to the user. For example, although some users may typically visit financial services sites to obtain information, they may prefer to spend their money pursuing a hobby unrelated to their online activities. Content providers that provide advertisements that are uninteresting to the user will not only decrease their own revenue, but also risk alienating the user.
What is needed is a system and method for filtering advertisements that is customized to an individual network. What is further needed is such a system and method that may be customized by users on the network to optimize the types of advertisements that are displayed.